Swedish woman is first to give birth after womb transplant

LONDON (KGO) -- A mother in Sweden has become a medical first -- she gave birth after undergoing a womb transplant.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, the 36-year-old Swedish mother said she learned she had no womb when she was 15 and was devastated.

More than a decade later, she heard about research being led by Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm IVF.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she and her partner were told there were no guarantees, but they took a risk and it paid off.

She received her new womb from a 61-year-old family friend last year, who had previously had two sons. The donor is now the baby's godmother.

Her surgeon announced she gave birth to a healthy baby in September. The baby was premature, but is now home with the family and is doing well.

And for the world's first baby born to a woman with a transplanted womb, only a victorious name would do. His mother says that is why his parents named him "Vincent," meaning "to conquer."

Swedish doctors say the experimental procedure could create new options for women who lost their uterus to cancer or were born without one.

A biomedical expert at Stanford points out there are still serious risks.

"You have to expose the donor to risk," said David Magnus. "You have to have a live person to have her uterus removed. Which is a significant risk, to no benefit to her, and it's very unproven. There are risks to the recipient and then of course there are unknown risks to the children that would be born."

He believes other options, such as surrogacy, are better.

Magnus also says it's unlikely scientists will research the procedure here in the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.